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Journalist and urban analyst James Russell argues that we'll slow global warming more quickly -- and blunt its effects -- by retrofitting cities, suburbs, and towns. The Agile City shows that change undertaken at the building and community level can reach carbon-reduction goals rapidly. Adapting buildings (39 per cent of greenhouse gas emission) and communities (slashing the 33 per cent of transportation-related emissions) offers numerous other benefits that tax gimmicks and massive alternative-energy investments can't match.
The Agile City highlights tactics that create multiplier effects, which means that ecologically driven change can shore up economic opportunity, can make more productive workplaces, and can help revive neglected communities. Being able to look at multiple effects and multiple benefits of political choices and private investments is essential to assuring wealth and well-being in the future. Green, Russell writes, grows the future.
James S. Russell is the Architecture Columnist for Bloomberg News. He has written about cities, architecture, and environmental design for more than twenty years. As a long-time editor, he helped Architectural Record magazine win a National Magazine Award for General Excellence. He has written for numerous newspapers, magazines, and books and consulted to environmental organizations, cities, and architects. He teaches at the City College of New York and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.
"The Agile City is a brilliant manifesto. James Russell makes a compelling case that climate change must be confronted at home: in the designs of our houses, apartments, workplaces and cities. But this is not just another 'green' initiative – the results could profoundly improve our quality of life – even as they help save the planet."
- James B. Stewart author of Tangled Webs and Den of Thieves
